Peegee hydrangeas are spectacular in fall
The white panicle and the pink and green panicles come from the same 'Limelight' hydrangea plant in my garden. Other plants in the bouquet include Autumn Joy sedum and 'Strictus' maiden grass.
Photo courtesy of Penelope O'Sullivan
Most folks love panicle hydrangea (H. paniculata) in the fall. Sometimes you see cultivars of this woody ornamental grown as a shrub, other times as a standard, or as a small tree that eventually reaches about 25 feet tall.
What are showy panicles, defined by the USDA as pyramidal, loosely branched flower clusters. The shrubs look attractive en masse in the landscape, and the blooms are easy to cut and dry.
The panicles usually start out green, turn creamy white, and finally reach deep rosy pink before browning with cold weather and old age. In southeastern New Hampshire, dead blooms have enough substance to keep their shape through many winter storms.
The common landscape cultivar is 鈥楪randiflora,' meaning big flower. You usually see the name abbreviated to peegee, the initials of 鈥�paniculata 鈥楪randiflora鈥�.鈥� Peegee plants 鈥� with their stem-bending blooms 鈥� remind me of a grande dame with a chest so heavy that it tips her forward.
If there鈥檚 a Victorian house in your town, or a building from the early 20th century, there鈥檚 probably a peegee growing near the foundation. Other widespread cultivars are 鈥楾ardiva鈥� and 鈥楿nique,' graceful shrubs known for long, heavy, pointed blooms.
I gave up on my peegee a while back because I let it sucker and become a mess. It was awful. I鈥檝e never grown 鈥�,' although I admire it in other people鈥檚 gardens. In recent years, I鈥檝e grown a few newer H. paniculata cultivars including 鈥楲imelight鈥� and 鈥楶inky Winky.' A grower sent me the latter to trial in my garden.
For me, 鈥樷�� is the more floriferous, although my summer flowers have been white instead of green. Fall鈥檚 papery panicles, however, are deep pink and greenish, and about 6 to 10 inches long.
My 鈥楲imelight鈥� shrubs looked so spectacular last week that I cut a bouquet of fresh white and old pink-tinted blooms for my dear friend Rose. I also included in the vase one stunning upright panicle of聽 鈥�,' some rosy flower heads of Autumn Joy sedum, and pinkish inflorescences of 鈥楽trictus鈥� maiden grass. (See photo at top.)
One 鈥楶inky Winky鈥� bloom may not sound like much, but this one was a whopping 13 inches long and 8 inches wide, practically a bouquet in itself. The plant鈥檚 literature says that the pointy panicles can grow up to 16 inches long.
Flowers open white, but the base of the panicle soon turns pink for a bicolor effect. Such bold blooms are perfect for drying, and that鈥檚 just what Rose did with her bouquet.
Penelope O鈥橲ullivan, who writes about trees and shrubs at Diggin鈥� It, is the author of 鈥淭he Homeowner鈥檚 Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook: The Essential Guide to Choosing, Planting, and Maintaining Perfect Landscape Plants.鈥� She has a landscape design business on the New Hampshire seacoast.
Editor鈥檚 note: To read more posts by Penelope, see our . The Monitor鈥檚 main gardening page offers articles on many gardening topics. See also our . You may want to visit . Take part in and get answers to your gardening questions. If you join the group (it鈥檚 free), you can upload your garden photos and enter our next contest.